When London-based photographer Gemma Betts found out that she’d won Savvy Editors’ Choice Award for January, she was thought it was some kind of prank.

“But then I realised that it wasn’t and sat here at my desk scratching my head,” says Betts. “I honestly did not think this would happen. I want to thank all the Savvy team that saw my work and gave me that industry recognition that means so much to me.”

After moving from Reading, Betts is now works from Walthamstow, London. “I’m loving being in London - the diversity, the city buzz, and the fact that I still haven’t seen so much of it, even though I live here.”

She is now in the running to be flown to Sydney, Australia to be one of the official photographers in Savvy’s Search For The Million Dollar Woman finals. Sydney, however, will not be the only stamp on her passport.

For both work and play, she travels as much as she possibly can, and in the last 24 months has seen East Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Estonia, Norway, Sweden and France, among others. As with her work, Bett’s travel adventures are a constant search for the new.

“Travel means so much to me. Exploring new countries and cultures really makes me feel alive. I like to mix in with the locals, eat where they eat, drink where they drink. Some people like to go back to the same places all the time – the way I see it is there is too much of the world to see, so I want to keep exploring different bits of it all the time. My dream trip would be pole to pole, but I might need to win the lottery to be able to do that.”

Despite her talent, photography wasn’t her first love. Instead, she had designs on a career as an architect in her school-yard days.

“I loved designing floor plans and buying modern architecture books. I even took physics and maths mechanics! However, I soon started to have doubts… I’m not someone to stick to rules and regulations. I’m a bit of a free spirit,” says Betts. “The idea of building laws made me feel like I was trapping myself in a room.”  Even, she admits, if it was an incredibly well-designed room. “It was still suffocating my creative side.”

Betts has her mother to thank for the push in the right direction. Betts’ mother made her see not only that she was an artist, but that photography didn’t merely have to be a hobby, instead it could be her job. For this, Betts’ is eternally grateful.

“How many people actually get to do exactly what they love all day every day?”

Betts assures Savvy that the best thing about doing what she does is being able to be as creative as she like without the constraints of a nine-to-five. “I am always thinking of new ideas that make me feel all warm inside. This is my passion, and I get to do it as my job... what more could I ask for?”

When asked if she could be sued for plagiarism by any artist, living or dead, there is no hesitation: 

“This one is easy, it would be David Lachapelle. His work is so colourful and sexy. He is doing exactly what I would love to be doing: grand set designs, organised chaos. He doesn’t just take photos of the classically beautiful. Instead, he finds the beauty in everyone and everything around him.”
Her own work is bold, with clean lines and bright colours. Despite the similarities not only in style, but of ability, with Lachapelle, Betts is self-effacing, saying that she is her own worst critic.

“I would describe my passion is to make things look sexy but in a vibrant way. My style uses a lot of creative input – I do not just shoot a model against a Colourama paper roll.” Instead Betts finds backdrops in the most unorthodox of places, anywhere from wallpaper designs, tablecloth patterns, to joke shops.
“I often buy something but do not know what I am going to do with it at first and then I get inspired,” admits Betts. “My inspirations make me get a glint in my eye and a chest full of air.”

Betts was good enough to answer a few of Savvy’s questions with a few of her own answers…

Savvy: What’s the difference between a good shot and a great shot?

Betts: There are so many variations that can cause the difference from a good shot into a great shot: from the models, it’s a slight eye position change, a smile, a raised eyebrow. From the make-up and hair, it’s the grand make up or the perfectly styled hair, and from the photographer it’s the lighting, the composition, and the ability to carry on shooting when they are laughing on the chance that you might just get ‘that exact look’. It’s also in the retouching, but that I feel should only make a great shot better. If you retouch rubbish, you’ll still get rubbish; if you retouch a great image, it will just enhance it.

Savvy: What is the single most important thing to you whilst shooting?
Betts: That we as a team have a good time, and that this will come across in the photos. I am a very hard worker – I work around 90 hours a week. If it wasn’t fun I would resent it. I think that’s what makes me popular on the scene: I treat everyone with respect; I do see ‘us’ as a team, not as a model, as make-up artist, or an assistant. Instead, we are a team that will work hard but have fun with it.

Savvy: What is your favourite thing to shoot?
Betts: People, and any kind of people, but with this unusual creative edge. Having diversity of individual characters in my book really makes me smile;  it means I have a story about each person, each shot.  I love meeting new people and making them feel good about themselves. When they see the finished photos and I see how happy they are  it makes me think that in some ways I am more than “just a photographer”, that I make people feel good!

Savvy: Do you think photographers don’t get enough recognition?
Betts: That’s a tough one! I have chosen a career that makes me behind the lens, don’t get me wrong, a little bit of fame with it is a nice add on, but look at it this way: I think people get caught up in trying to be well-known publicly where as I think recognition means more when it’s from the industry itself. And with such a saturated market it is difficult to get that recognition when it’s due... but I wouldn’t want it any other way – it should be hard to achieve, otherwise I would get bored... I need a challenge to keep my blood flowing and my soul alive. I am a firm believer in credit when credit is due!

On the Web:
www.savvy.com/users/gemmabetts/pictures
www.gemmabetts.co.uk/